Death Rates for Black American Falls Significantly

Perhaps the training programs instituted by a number of Medical Schools to train doctors to combat racial bias is helping. Perhaps also it is the rising number of Doctors who are immigrants and don’t have those biases in the first place.

Just wait until when the Chumph’s boys find this out and pass a law denying health care to black folks…

Oh! They are already doing that with attempting to repeal Obamacare and pass Trumpcare.

Death Rate Among Black Americans Declines, Especially For Elderly People

For decades, black Americans have been dying at a higher rate than white Americans.

That’s still true overall. But now there’s some good news about this long, disturbing trend: The overall death rate for black Americans fell 25 percent between 1999 and 2015, according to a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The overall death rate dropped for white people as well, but the decrease among black Americans was far greater, narrowing the gap in the death rate between white and black Americans from 33 percent in 1999 to 16 percent in 2015, the report shows.

“This report is definitely good news,” says Joseph Betancourt, who runs the Disparities Solutions Center at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Ma. “Efforts over the last 15 to 17 years that have focused on addressing and eliminating disparities have definitely provided some significant results.”

Between 1999 and 2015, the death rate among black Americans fell from 1,135.7 to 851.9 per 100,000. For white Americans, the rate fell from 854.6 to 735 per 100,000 in the same time period.

“Prior to this, there was very little progress in the decline in the gap between African-Americans and whites in United States,” says Timothy Cunningham, a CDC epidemiologist who led the report. It was published in the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The report did not examine the reason the gap narrowed, but Cunningham says it’s probably due to black people benefiting more from decreases in the number of deaths from a variety of diseases, including AIDS and tobacco-related illnesses.

“The major drivers of this are decreases in many of the leading causes of death, such as heart disease, cancer and stroke,” Cunningham says.

The drop in the death rate was most striking among those 65 and older. In that group, the death rate for black people fell 27 percent, compared to 17 percent for white people. As a result, by 2010 the death rate for black Americans in this age group fell slightly below the rate for white Americans, according to the report.

“We’re talking about African-Americans who were pretty young during in the 1960s and 1970s,” Cunningham says. “And one thing we have to consider is that there have been significant improvements in socioeconomic status that are associated with civil rights policies.”

Cunningham stresses that the overall death rate among black people remains higher than for white people. As a group, black Americans have an overall life expectancy that’s still four years less than white Americans.

And the picture is especially troubling for younger black people, who are still developing, and dying from, major health problems such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and stroke at younger ages than their white counterparts.

“Many younger African-Americans in their 20s, 30s and 40s are living and dying with chronic conditions that we more typically see in the older population,” Cunningham says. “There’s still work to do.”

That finding is consistent with previous reports that indicate some black Americans experience a phenomenon known as “weathering.” That’s when a person develops signs of premature aging and an earlier deterioration in health, the report notes.

Weathering can be caused by a variety of factors, including living in poverty, living in violent neighborhoods and encountering racism on a regular basis, Betancourt says.

“Racism and experiencing racism — thinking about your race every day — contributes to this weathering effect,” he says. “You’re in fight-or-flight mode. That has a real significant biological effect that contributes to premature aging.”

 

Junkies for Trump – Trumpazoid Celebrates Overdose Deaths of Ohio Farmer’s Kids

There is an epidemic out there in Trump Country. And it is killing more white, rural and suburban kids than all the black-on-black crime than any of the cities…Over three times as many and growing every year.

The Chumph’s budget cuts, and Paul Ryan’s Chumpcare assure that more of these kids will be dying, because of cuts (or outright dropping) in addiction treatment, availability of overdose drugs, and availability of counseling.

These kid’s parents voted for Trump…And in doing so killed their own children.

Voting race over the lives of their own children.

Trumpcare cuts include treatment for addiction…

Ohio farmer loses two kids to heroin overdose — and Obamacare-hating Trump fan celebrates

An Ohio father who lost two of his three children to heroin overdoses said he received a letter celebrating their deaths that was postmarked from a condominium complex owned by President Donald Trump.

Roger Winemiller shared his family’s story earlier this month with the New York Timesand WCPO-TV, and he got an anonymous letter about a week later that called for the repeal of Obamacare and referred to Trump, the TV station reported.

“It’s wonderful that junkies overdose and die,” the letter reads. “That is the only way we can rid America of all those low-life scum. I am so happy that your children did their part in reducing the drug population.”

The writer suggested that the Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act would break the grip of heroin addiction in many parts of the U.S.

“We should look forward to the repeal of filthy Obamacare,” the letter reads. “When we reduce mooching, those thieves will quickly die when they lose medical access.”

The Wayne Township father lost his 31-year-old daughter to overdose March 26, 2016, and her older brother died from overdose nine months later. His surviving son, Roger T. Winemiller, has also struggled with drug addiction but is currently in recovery.

“It’s a perfect example of what we face here in this nation,” Winemiller said. “The type of people who are too heartless and self-centered to realize that addicts are beautiful people, and they are someone’s son or daughter. If they had a chance to talk to a recovering addict and see how vibrant they are, how intelligent, they might think differently.”

The letter was marked with a Trump Palace return address, but an employee told WCPO that the Trump Group-owned residential property had never had a resident whose name matched the sender’s signature.

Warren County, where Winemiller lives, backed Trump over Hillary Clinton in November’s election by a 67-29 spread — a much higher margin that Ohio’s overall 52-44 tilt toward the Republican candidate.

The southwestern Ohio county, like many others that backed Trump, is struggling with an epidemic of heroin addiction.

A recent task force report found Warren County, an exurban community between Cincinnati and Dayton, had seen a double- or triple-digit increase in opioid heroin overdoses and deaths.

Drug overdose was listed as the cause of death in 20 fatalities in 2014, up from 11 in Warren County a decade before, and shot up to 60 in 2015, according to medical authorities.

About 70 percent of those addiction cases start with prescription drug use in the home, but some addicts move on to heroin — which is both cheaper and more powerful.

A post-election analysis by historian Kathleen Frydl found a strong correlation between the opioid epidemic and counties in Ohio and Pennsylvania that swung from President Barack Obama in 2012 to Trump in 2016.

Twenty-six Ohio counties reported 20 or more drug overdose deaths per 100,000 people in 2015, and there was a 10 percent surge in all but two of those counties in support for Trump compared with Republican Mitt Romney in 2012.

There was a corresponding 10-percent or more drop in Clinton support compared with Obama in the previous election — and the shift was big enough for five of those counties to flip from Democrat in 2012 to GOP in 2016.

All but four of 33 high-overdose counties in Pennsylvania followed the same trend.

Another study by Penn State sociologist Shannon Monnat found Trump’s overperformance in Rust Belt counties correlated with other public health crises — including drug and alcohol addiction and suicide.

 

What Happened to That American Exceptionalism? There is None Anymore…

America has been on the decline since Raygun – despite on small moment of high achievement and expectations during the Clinton Administration.

The lang fall into mediocrity in America can be traced directly to the steps of the conservatives in America. Al most every country which is superior to the US in any category has a government and social system which conservatives would call “socialism”. Quite frankly – socialism is kicking our ass.

I am going to start with parts of an article in Fortune Magazine… 12 signs America is on the decline.

1. Median household income

Rank of U.S.: 27th out of 27 high-income countries

Americans may feel like global leaders, but Spain, Cyprus and Qatar all have higher median household incomes than America’s (about $54,000). So does much of Europe and the industrialized world. Per capita median income in the US ($18,700) is also relatively low–and unchanged since 2000. A middle-class Canadian’s income is now higher.

2. Education and skills

Rank of U.S.: 16th out of 23 countries

The US ranked near the bottom in a skills survey by theOrganization for Economic Co-operation and Development, which examined European and other developed nations. In its Skills Outlook 2013, the US placed 16th in adult literacy, 21st in adult numeracy out of 23, and 14th in problem-solving. Spots in prestigious US universities are highly sought-after. Yet higher education, once an effective way out of poverty in the US, isn’t anymore – at least not for lower-income and minority students. The authors quote studies showing, for example, that today 80% of white college students attend Barron’s Top 500 schools, while 75% of black and Latino students go to two-year junior colleges or open-admissions (not Top 500) schools. Poor students are also far less likely to complete a degree.

3. Internet speed and access

Rank of U.S.: 16th out of 34 countries

Broadband access has become essential for industry to grow and flourish. Yet in the US, penetration is low andspeed relatively slow versus wealthy nations—thought thecost of internet is among the highest ($0.04 per megabit per second in Japan, for example, versus $0.53 in the US). The problem may be too much concentration and too little competition in the industry, the authors suggest.

4. Health

Rank of U.S.: 33rd out of 145 countries

When it comes to its citizens’ health, in countries that are home to at least one million people, the US ranks below many other wealthy countries. More American women also are dying during pregnancy and childbirth, the authors note, quoting a Lancet study. For every 100,000 births in the United States, 18.5 women die. Saudi Arabia and Canada have half that maternal death rate.

5. People living below the poverty line

Rank of U.S.: 36th out of 162 countries, behind Morocco and Albania

Officially, 14.5% of Americans are impoverished — 45.3 million people–according to the latest US Census data.That’s a larger fraction of the population in poverty than Morocco and Albania (though how nations define poverty varies considerably). The elderly have Social Security, with its automatic cost-of-living adjustments, to thank, the authors say, for doing better: Few seniors (one in 10) are poor today versus 50 years ago (when it was one in three). Poverty is also down among African Americans. Now America’s poor are more often in their prime working years, or in households headed by single mothers.

6. Children in poverty

Rank of U.S.: 34th out of 35 countries surveyed

When UNICEF relative poverty – relative to the average in each society—the US ranked at the bottom, above only Romania, even as Americans are, on average, six times richer than Romanians. Children in all of Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan fare better.

7. Income inequality

Rank of U.S.: Fourth highest inequality in the world.

The authors argue that the most severe inequality can be found in Chile, Mexico, Turkey — and the US. Citing the Gini coefficient, a common inequality metric, and data from Wall Street Journal/Mercer Human Resource Consulting, they say this inequality slows economic growth, impedes youths’ opportunities, and ultimately threatens the nation’s future (an OECD video explains). Worsening income inequality is also evident in the ratio of averageCEO earnings to average workers’ pay. That ratio went from 24:1 in 1965 to 262:1 in 2005.

8. Prison population

Rank of U.S.: First out of 224 countries

More than 2.2 million Americans are in jail. Only China comes close, the authors write, with about 1.66 million.

9. Life satisfaction

Rank of U.S.: 17th out of 36 countries

The authors note Americans’ happiness score is only middling, according to the OECD Better Life Index. (The index measures how people evaluate their life as a whole rather than their current feelings.) People in New Zealand, Finland, and Israel rate higher in life satisfaction. A UN report had a similar finding.

10. Corruption

Rank of U.S.: 17th out of 175 countries.

Barbados and Luxembourg are ahead of the US when it comes to citizens’ perceptions of corruption. Americans view their country as “somewhat corrupt,” the authors note, according to Transparency International, a Berlin-based nonprofit. In a separate survey of American citizens, many said politicians don’t serve the majority’s interest, but are biased toward corporate lobbyists and the super-rich. “Special interest groups are gradually transforming the United States into an oligarchy,” the authors argue, “concerned only about the needs of the wealthy.”

11. Stability

Rank of U.S.: 20th out of 178 countries.

The Fragile States Index considers factors such as inequality, corruption, and factionalism. The US lags behind Portugal, Slovenia and Iceland.

12. Social progress index

Rank of U.S.: 16th out of 133 countries

A broad measure of social well-being, the index comprises 52 economic indicators such as access to clean water and air, access to advanced education, access to basic knowledge, and safety. Countries surpassing the US include Ireland, the UK, Iceland, and Canada.

“If America’s going to be great again, we’ve got to start fixing things,” Friedman said.

Just for the heck of it, I am going to add a couple more…

Economic Mobility

“If you work hard you can achieve”…A poor kid has a better chance of achieving reaching the higher economic levels in other countries. The US lag is getting worse.

The following chart only compares the 27 industrialized countries. The US actually drops to 17th if you include Second World Countries.

Infant Mortality

Your baby has a 2.5 times greater chance of dying prenatal, or postnatal covering the first year of life than in Japan or Finland. For black mothers that is about 4 times greater.

The US ranks 27th of the 27 Industrialized Nations… Comparing it to all nations we are about 40th behind Cuba.

Suicide Rate

America is in the middle of the pack. However the rate of suicides in the US exceeds that of Libya, the Central African Republic, Brazil, and China to name a few. Mental health care in the US is seriously lacking.

Racial Discrimination and Violence Against Minorities (Ethnic or racial)

America is a sad 37th.

Educational Attainment

Guess what guys…America has dropped to 16th.

Face i…This country would be far better off deporting Republicans than Illegal Immigrants.

 

Exorcism in Maryland Results in Death of Two Children

Proving that the Tea Party didn’t quite get every nutcase in America elected last term…

And the possible impact of watching one too many Twilight reruns.

This is another datapoint in why we, as a country – need to get a hell of a lot better on access to, and treatment of mental illness in our midst. Up to and including re-establishing long term facilities supporting the poor and middle class. Conservative “saint” Raygun kicked the mentally ill out of hospitals and onto the street as homeless, and the country has been paying a high toll for that bit of conservative “logic” ever since.

Police: Md. mother kills 2 kids while performing exorcism

 

GERMANTOWN, Md. (WUSA9) — A mother killed two of her own children while performing an exorcism in Germantown, Md., police said.

Montgomery County police have charged two women for murder in the Friday deaths of a 1-year-old boy and 2-year-old girl.

Zakieya Latrice Avery, the mother of the children is charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the killings, and two counts of attempted first-degree murder, as two other children remain hospitalized after Friday’s attack. Avery, 28, of the 19000 block of Cherry Bend Drive in Germantown, is being held without bond.

Monifa Denise Sanford, 21, who was also at the scene, has been released from the hospital and has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of the two kids and two counts of attempted murder for two children who are still in the hospital. She is also being held without bond.

Police identified the deceased children as Norell N. Harris, a 1-year-old male, and Zyana Z. Harris, a 2-year-old female.

The hospitalized children are identified as Taniya Harris, a 5-year-old female, and Martello Harris, a 8-year-old male.

People have laid down flowers, candles, and teddy bears in front of the home where the two children were killed and the two others were injured. A vigil was held Saturday night to remember the small children who were stabbed to death.

“It’s kind of horrifying for any father, any grandfather,” State’s Attorney John McCarthy said Friday. “These are hard cases,” he said, his voice breaking.

There has been no update on the condition of Taniya or Martello.

 

Van Jones Destroys Tea Party Ted Cruz

Oh My!

This is a whuppin’.

 

Why Obamacare Is Here to Stay

It is really very simple. The essence of which is captured by the following three images…

The post-Raygun destruction of the American Middle Class not only means a loss in ages. Faced with ballooning medical costs driven by private insurers, companies have shifted payment of health coverage off the “benefits” list and onto the shoulders of the employee. Now, even your average college grad is only one illness away from poverty.

 

And then – there is Mom…

The biggest non-criminal racket in the world is care for the elderly in the US. Conservatives would have you believe it is “Death Taxes”, which is a crock designed to fool the stupid into believing that the $10,000 a month it will cost you to put Mom or Dad in a senior center is irrelevant. For most of the middle class anymore, there quite simply isn’t any intergenerational wealth being passed on because of this.

Let’s be very clear. There is going to be a war in America on this come next election cycle. It is going to get ugly, when folks wake up and see these images with their mother, their kids, or brother or sister…

Even Tea Bagger hog calls to racism against the black President doesn’t trump mom dying.

 

History Shows Conservative Objections to Obamacare… Have no Clothes.

This is an absolutely brutal puncturing of the Republican/conservative balloon about Obamacare being un-Constitutional …

What this points out is that the conservative objection to Obamacare isn’t really about the Constitution. The 5 thugs in robes could give a damn about the “Original Intent” of the founders – and are on a path to force the country into a quasi-fascism.

A number of the FOunders, and signatories to the Constitution supported mandates... Including George Washington

Originalist Sin

The five conservative justices on the Supreme Court—Thomas, Alito, Scalia, Roberts and Kennedy—cloak themselves in the myth that they are somehow channeling the wisdom and understanding of the Founding Fathers, the original intent that guided the drafting of the Constitution.  I believe the premise of their argument is itself suspect: It is not clear to me how much weight should be given  to non-textually based intent that is practically impossible to discern more than 200 years later. Most of the issues over which there is constitutional dispute today could not even have been envisioned when the document was drafted.

Even so, it would be an even better response to the conservative wing’s claim of perceived understanding of original intent to be able to refute their claims by showing them to be historically and indisputably wrong.  So once again let’s venture into the world of the health care debate.   The consensus view is that existing Commerce Clause doctrine clearly authorizes the type of mandate passed in the act—see in particular the affirmance of the statute by ultraconservative Judge Silberman of the D.C. Circuit Court.

Nonetheless, those opposing the bill insist that an individual mandate has never been done and the framers would simply not permit such an encroachment on liberty and freedom.

Some spectacular historical reporting by Professor Einer Elhauge of Harvard Law School in the New Republic thoroughly rebut the argument. He has found three mandate equivalents passed into law by the early Congresses—in which a significant number of founders served—and reports that these bills were signed into law by none other than Presidents George Washington and John Adams. As Founders go, one might consider them pretty senior in the hierarchy.  Their acts can probably be relied upon to give us a reasonable idea what the Founders intended to be the scope of congressional and governmental power.

Amazingly, the examples of individual mandates passed by the founders are so directly applicable that the claim that original intent precludes affirming the heath care act should become almost laughable:

• In 1790, a Congress including 20 Founders passed a law requiring that ship owners buy medical insurance for their seamen. Washington signed it into law.
• In 1792, another law signed by Washington required that all able-bodied men buy a firearm. (So much for the argument that Congress can’t force us to participate in commerce.)
• And in 1798, a Congress with five framers passed a law requiring that all seamen buy hospital insurance for themselves. Adams signed this legislation.

In aggregate, these laws show that the Founders and the Congress of the time were willing to force all of us to participate in a particular act of commence and were comfortable requiring both the owner of a business and the individual employee to buy insurance in order to assure that health costs would be covered at a societal level.  That is a pretty complete rebuttal to all the claims being made by the originalists as they relate to the health care act.

But what is so powerful about these historical finds is not just that they rebut the specific argument about original intent as applied to the health care act. This history lays bare the ahistorical nature of the justices’ claims at another and deeper level. For the types of bill passed in 1790, 1792, and 1798 show the Founders to have been doing exactly what congress did especially well in the era of FDR—–experimenting with solutions and approaches to resolving social issues in ways that made government part of creative problem solving.

These examples show the fallacy and the false rigidity that the originalists seek to impose on our government. In their effort to cabin and restrain the government—their ideology of the moment—they seek to have the benefit of the claim that the founders shared such a limited approach to governing.  In fact, the approach to governing that these acts demonstrate is more nuanced and thoughtful.  As with so many of the claims of the originalists, a slight understanding of the true history shows that the originalists’ view is mere ideology being imposed on a false understanding of history.

I’m categorizing this post under “The New Jim Crow”, because the lack of health care results in the deaths of tens of thousands of black babies due to lack of pre-natal or post-natal care in the first year of life…

Every year in the United States.

Put in any other terms – the lack of Health Care i the US is genocide.

 

Anti-Obamacare Litigant Goes Bankrupt – Owing Medical Bills

“Ain’t nobody going to force me to get no healthcare insurance!”

Ain’t nobody going to bail your dumb ass out from going bankrupt either.

I just spent several weeks in 2 Hospitals. The bill for the first one, in which I stayed 3 days was $61,000. That is a formidable bill to have to cover out of pocket.

These dumb arsed Republicans let their racism get in the way of common sense.Indeed they want to screw the whole damn country because Obama is President.

Plaintiff challenging healthcare law went bankrupt – with unpaid medical bills

Mary Brown, a 56-year-old Florida woman who owned a small auto repair shop but had no health insurance, became the lead plaintiff challengingPresident Obama‘s healthcare law because she was passionate about the issue.

Brown “doesn’t have insurance. She doesn’t want to pay for it. And she doesn’t want the government to tell her she has to have it,” said Karen Harned, a lawyer for the National Federation of Independent Business. Brown is a plaintiff in the federation’s case, which the Supreme Court plans to hear later this month.

But court records reveal that Brown and her husband filed for bankruptcy last fall with $4,500 in unpaid medical bills. Those bills could change Brown from a symbol of proud independence into an example of exactly the problem the healthcare law was intended to address.

The central issue before the Supreme Court is whether the government can require people to buy health insurance. Under the law, those who fail to buy insurance after 2014 could face a fine of up to $700.

The business federation, along with other critics of the law, calls the insurance mandate a “threat to individual liberty” that violates the Constitution.

Obama administration lawyers argue that the requirement is justified because everyone, sooner or later, needs healthcare. Those who fail to have insurance are at high risk of running up bills they cannot pay, sticking the rest of society with the cost, they argue. Brown’s situation, they say, is a perfect example of exactly that kind of “uncompensated care that will ultimately be paid by others.”

“This is so ironic,” Jane Perkins, a health law expert in North Carolina, said of Brown’s situation. “It just shows that all Americans inevitably have a need for healthcare. Somebody has paid for her healthcare costs. And she is now among the 62% whose personal bankruptcy was attributable in part to medical bills.”…(more)

 

Young Man, Raised By Lesbian Couple – Kicks Hell Out of Iowa Republican Bigots

You have to love the Republican Argument that Obamacare is “the Governmen regulating people’s lives” …

But passing legislation to ban gay marriage isn’t. Tossing aside any moral considerations about whether homosexuality fits or doesn’t fit one’s religious beliefs – for me at least it is the core issue that goes back to the ideological ancestors of the current Republicans institution of anti-miscegenation laws to block people of different races from marrying (laws that weren’t overthrown that long ago in Loving vs. Virginia) now trying to control people by sexual orientation.

The very same people squealing the loudest about the government “controlling their lives”.

Too bad there aren’t any bought judges like Thomas, Scalia, and Alito on the liberal side. It would be downright amusing to see a decision that while the government can’t mandate you have Health Care…It also can’t mandate who you can or can’t marry. Seems to me if it can’t be in your personal life one way – it can’t be in your personal life in another…

Eat that, conservative scum!

 

Rep Anthony Weiner Hammers Republicans For Killing Health Care for 9/11 First Responders

Rep Anthony Weiner goes off on Rethugs who have just voted down a bill to provide medical care to the First Responders of 9-11.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Anthony Weiner Rips Apart Republicans on 9/11He…, posted with vodpod

 

Taking on the Bigots

About time some of the MSM start asking the tough questions. Here, Kos founder Markos Moulitsas slams Tancredo – pointing out he served in the Military, whereas Tancredo dodged the Vietnam War draft!

Vodpod videos no longer available.

more about “Former GOP congressman Tom Tancredo, …“, posted with vodpod

 

Bill O’Reilly Lies About Health Care

Last week a Republican did the unthinkable – he criticized Faux News.

Senator Tom Coburn was promptly called on the carpet by Bill O’Reilly – where O’Reilly used his favorite technique…

Climing his “researchers” searched the archives of Faux News for the statement in question…

And couldn’t find it. This typically puts the interviewee on the defensive, as few people can call off the top of their head exactly when and where they saw a simgle comment on TV.

O’Reilly lied – in what has become a pattern for him –

Jail Time for Insurance Evaders? Yes, Said Fox News

…Then, last night Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly raked Coburn over the coals for his comment about the network. O’Reilly said no one had ever appeared on Fox News and told viewers they would go to jail if they didn’t buy health insurance. “We researched on Fox News if anybody had ever said you’re going to jail if you don’t buy health insurance. Nobody’s ever said it.”

Like Coburn, I was pretty sure I’d heard exactly this assertion numerous times on Fox News, so I did a quick search of their transcripts. Here’s what I found (emphasis mine):

YOUR WORLD WITH NEIL CAVUTO, November 13, 2009

REP. DAVE REICHERT (R), WASHINGTON: Well, you know, what I`m worried about is that we continue on with this — this whole idea that we’re going to pay for this bill by taxing people. So, now we’re going to tax their health insurance plans. On the House side, we have already passed a bill that taxes families, taxes small businesses, taxes medical devices for seniors and our special-needs community. And then we are also going to fine people and send them to jail. So, the bill just keeps getting worse and worse and worse. Every day that goes by…

CAVUTO: I understand, Congressman.

 

Rock Star Alex Chilton Dies From Lack of Health Insurance

The year was 1967 – middle of the Vietnam War. Those of you not familiar with Blue-Eyed Soul may or may not recall the Box Tops version of the letter.

(Did we actually dress like that in the 60s?)

Their lead singer was Alex Chilton, who would later move to NOLA and join the music scene there. Last week he passed away…

Yet another victim of the dysfunctional Health Care System right wingers fight so hard to protect-

Alex Chilton Delayed Medical Treatment Due to Lack of Health Insurance

Alex Chilton‘s unexpected death last month at age 59 might have been prevented if he had health insurance. According to a report in the Times-Picayune, Chilton’s wife, Laura Kersting, says that although he had symptoms of heart trouble, he declined immediate treatment due to lack of coverage.

Chilton, who at age 16 had a No. 1 US hit single with ‘The Letter’ in 1967 as lead singer of the Box Tops, passed away just days before he was to appear at a reunion show in Austin, Texas, of his ’70s group, the widely influential power-pop band Big Star.

“At least twice in the week before his fatal heart attack, Chilton experienced shortness of breath and chills while cutting grass,” the article reports. “But he did not seek medical attention, Kersting said, in part because he had no health insurance.”

The Times-Picayune reveals that on the morning of March 17, the Big Star frontman called Kersting at work to tell her he wasn’t well. She made it home before the ambulance and rushed him to the emergency room, running a red light at his insistence, before he lost consciousness when they were just a block from the emergency room.

The piece also takes a close look at Chilton’s private life in New Orleans, where the Memphis-raised Louisiana transplant lived in the mixed neighborhood of Treme, where he rode out Hurricane Katrina in 2005. “He identified with black people more than white people,” Kersting said. “He was very much a part of this neighborhood.” Neighbors across the street marveled as Chilton cut his grass with a manual push mower.

Despite his iconic indie rock stature, Chilton’s wife said, “He was kind of lazy … He took it very easy. He’d say, ‘Why work when I don’t have to?’ He wanted a very simple life. He was not interested in fame. He was interested in money — he wanted enough to be comfortable and to travel.”

The Box Tops seminal song would later be covered by a number of groups, none more famously than by Joe Cocker and Mad Dogs and Englishmen, in 1970…

In the Age before white people learned to dance in this country! 🙂

 

Republican on Recieving End of Violent Threats?

Eric Cantor

Well – the Republican attack machine has finally gotten just the pie they baked…

Pushback.

According to Virginia Republican Congressman Eric Cantor, who is the House Minority Whip – someone put a bullet through his campaign office window in Richmond, Virginia. Of course Eric, being a Republican hypocrite then went on to say Democrats who had been attacked were crybabies utilizing the attacks for political gain (as if he wasn’t!)…

What gets interesting about Cantor’s claim though – is when you look at the forensic report by the Richmond Police –

A Richmond Police detective was assigned to the case. A preliminary investigation shows that a bullet was fired into the air and struck the window in a downward direction, landing on the floor about a foot from the window. The round struck with enough force to break the windowpane but did not penetrate the window blinds. There was no other damage to the room, which is used occasionally for meetings by the congressman.

That is not exactly consistent with a “drive by”. It is consistent with someone having shot in the air, and depending on type of round and gun – they could possibly have been a mile or even two away from Cantor’s office – which destroys the assertion that Cantor’s office was the target. Virginia IS a gun state, in no small part due to the efforts of Mr. Cantor and his Party to keep it that way…

And there is no IQ requirement in Virginia to own a gun.

Cantor is Jewish – and apparently has received a undefined number of anti-Semitic threats. He’s refusing to release those, most probably because the people who made those threats have a high likelihood of belonging to the Tea Party Republicans, who have been invaded by neo-Nazis and other unsavory characters.

At some point, with all the superheated rhetoric and gun waving, though…

Somebody is going to get hurt.

Cantor Says Campaign Office Was Shot At, Accuses Dems of Exploiting Threats

Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor said Thursday that his Richmond campaign office has been shot at and that he’s received “threatening e-mails” — but at the same time the House minority whip accused top Democrats of trying to exploit the threats they’ve been receiving for “political gain.”

Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor said Thursday that his Richmond campaign office has been shot at and that he’s received “threatening e-mails” — but at the same time the House minority whip accused top Democrats of trying to exploit the threats they’ve been receiving for “political gain.”

Cantor said “a bullet was shot through the window” of his campaign office. The incident happened Monday, Fox News has learned, the latest in a rash of apparent threats and acts of intimidation against members of Congress. Most of the threats so far have been reported by Democrats, but Cantor — the No. 2 Republican in the House — is one of about 10 lawmakers who has asked for increased security protection, Fox News has learned.

In brief and pointed remarks, Cantor said he would not be releasing any information about the other threats he’s received, as some lawmakers have done, out of concern that it would “encourage more to be sent.”

And he admonished his colleagues — specifically Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine — for “dangerously fanning the flames by suggesting these incidents be used as a political weapon.”

“Any suggestion that a leader in this body would incite threats or acts against other members is akin to saying that I would endanger myself, my wife or my children,” Cantor said. “It is reckless to use these incidents as media vehicles for political gain.”

Van Hollen told MSNBC on Wednesday that Republican leaders were “pouring more and more gasoline on the flames.” Kaine, in an interview with the Huffington Post, said Republican leaders are “trying to stoke anger” with lies.

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., in an interview with MSNBC Wednesday night, said people are getting “signals” from lawmakers on how to behave and that lawmakers need to “disown” the activity before it gets out of control. He suggested his colleagues were culpable.

“If we participate in it, either from the balcony or on the floor of the House, you are aiding and abetting this kind of terrorism, really,” Clyburn said.

And Rep. Phil Hare, D-Ill., told Fox News on Thursday that he thought House Republican Leader John Boehner should step aside for not being more vocal in denouncing the threats.

“He has a responsibility to step up and put an end to this,” Hare said. “I think this is despicable.”

Cantor said Thursday that such threats should not be a “partisan issue.”

Cantor, as minority whip, is the highest elected Jewish politician in the country, and he said some of the threats he’s gotten in the past have been because of his religion. But all the recent threats against lawmakers appear to be connected to the health care debate.

The Department of Homeland Security is involved in the Cantor case because he is a member of the House leadership. U.S. Capitol Police already provide Cantor with a security detail around the clock because of his leadership position, but he has asked for more security.

Fox News has also obtained a threatening message left Friday on the voicemail of Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Ohio, which comes on top of a slew of other threats.

Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Ohio, released a recording of a voicemail she said she received in which a man repeatedly accuses Republicans of being racists.

I have to agree with the guy who called Schmidt, that the current crop of Republicans are racists…

But despising them and hurting them with anything more than pointing out why they are wrong – are two entirely different things.

Whoever you are – don’t go there!

 

Another Smear Job By Conservatives – Al Sharpton and “Socialism”

This one is circulating the WWW, and has even reached (formerly) respectable news sites like Real Clear Politics –

Notice the label on the video…

It is not what Al Sharpton said.

The heading to this one is a deliberate, and outright lie.

Al actually responded to the question – “Is this Socialism” with the rhetorical –

“Then, you would have to say the American Public overwhelmingly voted for Socialism…”

What he said was if you call Health Care Reform “socialism” – then the American people voted for it overwhelmingly – because they voted for Obama, whose platform included Health Care Reform.

He did not at any point concede to the labeling of Health Care Reform as being “socialism”.

Back to your sources Faux –